Borussia Dortmund vs. Hoffenheim preview: Visitors looking to end their winless run
Hoffenheim will attempt to claim their first victory since December when they travel to Signal Iduna Park for Sunday’s Bundesliga meeting with Borussia Dortmund.
Borussia Dortmund
After playing out a 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg last weekend, Dortmund experienced a repeat of that scoreline in Tuesday’s Champions League clash with PSV Eindhoven. Donyell Malen scored against his former club to give his side a narrow lead at the half-time interval. However, they ultimately had to settle for a draw after Luuk de Jong netted a 56th-minute penalty.
With the second leg of the last-16 tie set to take place next month, Dortmund will now turn their attention back to domestic matters, with die Schwarzgelben set to continue their quest to secure a top-four finish. Dortmund will head into Sunday’s contest in fourth position and one point better off than fifth-placed RB Leipzig, who fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich on Saturday.
Edin Terzic’s side will be confident about their chances of claiming maximum points against Hoffenheim, having won each of their last six head-to-head meetings, including victories in the league and the DFB-Pokal this season.
Team News
The hosts are unable to call upon the services of Gregor Kobel, Felix Nmecha and Sébastien Haller, while Niklas Süle is a doubt due to illness.
Hoffenheim
Hoffenheim are now winless in eight Bundesliga matches after they fell to a narrow 1-0 loss to Union Berlin last weekend. As a result of that defeat, die Kraichgauer will start Sunday in 10th position and six points adrift of the top six.
While they will be determined to return to winning ways against Dortmund, Pellegrino Matarazzo will be concerned by the fact his side have lost four of their last five away matches in the top flight. Although they have scored two goals in both of their previous two away matches, Hoffenheim have struggled at the opposite end of the pitch, conceding 13 goals across their last five road trips.
If they are to end their poor run of form, Hoffenheim will need to beat Dortmund for the first time since recording a 2-0 victory in June 2020.
Team News
The visitors are expected to be without Kevin Akpoguma, Mërgim Berisha, Marco John and Robert Skov, while there are doubts over the availability of Tom Bischof, Bambasé Conté and Marius Bülter. As for Stanley Nsoki, he will serve a one-match suspension after being sent off last weekend.